Some good information.
I think I envision my path as moving to contracting, then consulting, and creating a consulting company, while this funds my product company. pg suggests this is difficult though. However once the consulting side hits of, I could hire a reputable manager for x amount of profit share, while I receive enough to invest in my product based company.
How naive am I about all of this?
Just start your project, try to get a few customers, and go from there. Those steps alone will take you far longer than you'd expect, and teach you more than you can learn in researching how to start a company. You don't need lawyers, you don't need T&Cs, you don't need to incorporate. Just build out your idea and get to market as fast as you can.
What if a customer is unhappy with my service? What EULA/T&C do I need to provide? I'm just trying to get my head around all basics, and make sure that when I start I start in the right spot.
Another example, I suppose twitter is a case in point. Who owns Twitter? Is that the companies only product? How do they market Company X creator of Twitter. Or the original owners would just sell Twitter itself and move on to another product?
Did you build your products on the side whilst holding a full-time job? And you just went at it, creating products and getting cash from users from it?
Are you a good programmer?
I've been thinking about these things a lot, but finding it hard to actualise everything around it. From what you've said, it appears to be as simple as it is. Build a product, try to get customers, and maybe make some money. Worry about everything else later.
Its good that you have questions and curiosity, but some things you need to figure out or learn on your own. So in short: • If you need to accept money, use paypal or google "accept credit cards online". Thats your research.
• If you have unhappy customers, you talk to them and resolve it. Don't worry about terms unless you have a good reason to.
• If you want to know more about Twitter, look them up on Wikipedia.
Don't worry about other people or about trying to follow a pattern to success; there are no patterns. Just work hard, and do what you gotta do.